We review the structural chemistry and reactivity of copper-exchanged molecular sieves with chabazite (CHA) topology, as an industrially applied catalyst in ammonia mediated reduction of harmful nitrogen oxides (NH3-SCR) and as a general model system for red-ox active materials (also the recent results in the direct conversion of methane to methanol are considered). Notwithstanding the apparent structural simplicity of the material, a crystalline zeolite with only one crystallographically independent T site, the Cu-SSZ-13 catalyst reveals a high degree of complexity that has been decrypted by state of the art characterization tools. From the reviewed data, the following important aspects in the understanding of the Cu-SSZ-13 catalyst clearly emerged: (i) the structural dynamics of the Cu-species require precise control of the environmental conditions during activation and characterization; (ii) the availability of a large library of well-defined catalysts with different Si/Al and Cu/Al compositional ratios is key in unravelling the red-ox properties of the active Cu sites; (iii) a multi-technique approach is required, combining complementary techniques able to provide independent structural, electronic and vibrational information; (iv) synchrotron radiation based techniques (EXAFS, XANES, XES and time-resolved powder XRD) played a relevant role; (v) operando methodology (possibly supported by advanced chemometric approaches) is essential in obtaining structure-reactivity relations; (vi) the support of theoretical studies has been indispensable for the interpretation of the experimental output from characterization and for a critical assessment of mechanistic models. The old literature that classified Cu-exchanged zeolites in the category of single-site catalysts has been partially disproved by the recent advanced studies where it has been shown that the active site in the low temperature NH3-SCR catalyst is a mobile Cu-molecular entity that "lives in symbiosis" with an inorganic solid framework. Only in the high temperature NH3-SCR regime do the mobile Cu-species lose their ligands and find docking sites at the internal walls of the zeolite framework, thus reflecting the idea of a single-site catalyst. After a brief introduction, the review is divided into three main parts devoted to characterization (Section 2), reactivity (Section 3), and industrial applications (Section 4), followed by some concluding remarks and providing a perspective of the field.


Defects in vascular integrity are an initiating factor in several disease processes. We have previously reported that high molecular weight hyaluronan (HMW-HA), a major glycosaminoglycan in the body, promotes rapid signal transduction in human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (HPMVEC) leading to barrier enhancement. In contrast, low molecular weight hyaluronan (LMW-HA), produced in disease states by hyaluronidases and reactive oxygen species (ROS), induces HPMVEC barrier disruption. However, the mechanism(s) of sustained barrier regulation by HA are poorly defined. Our results indicate that long-term (6–24 hours) exposure of HMW-HA induced release of a novel type of extracellular vesicle from HLMVEC called enlargeosomes (characterized by AHNAK expression) while LMW-HA long-term exposure promoted release of exosomes (characterized by CD9, CD63, and CD81 expression). These effects were blocked by inhibiting caveolin-enriched microdomain (CEM) formation. Further, inhibiting enlargeosome release by annexin II siRNA attenuated the sustained barrier enhancing effects of HMW-HA. Finally, exposure of isolated enlargeosomes to HPMVEC monolayers generated barrier enhancement while exosomes led to barrier disruption. Taken together, these results suggest that differential release of extracellular vesicles from CEM modulate the sustained HPMVEC barrier regulation by HMW-HA and LMW-HA. HMW-HA-induced specialized enlargeosomes can be a potential therapeutic strategy for diseases involving impaired vascular integrity.


The effects of ground contact resistance on the performance of overhead distribution lines are reviewed. Ground contact resistance is not negligible in many situations involving dry or rocky soil, for example, and can effect distribution lines with respect to customer voltage, losses under unbalanced loading, and neutral potential. It can also affect the voltages and currents that will be encountered by telephone, television, or other service cables that share electric distribution poles. The results presented are intended both to be tutorial, in pointing out effects that exist but are not recognized in routine calculation work, and to supplement the sparse fund of documentation on the numerical values associated with these effects. >


Hydrogen production by ethanol steam reforming over Ni-Cu/ZnO catalyst in the temperatures range of 250-550°C was studied on a fixed bed reactor. The effects of reaction temperature and water/ethanol molar ratio on hydrogen production were investigated. The structure and surface characteristics of the catalyst were measured by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential thermal analyzer (TG-DSC). The results show that the Ni-Cu/ZnO catalyst has good catalytic performance with higher hydrogen yield of 4.87molH2/molEtOH reacted. A comparison of hydrogen production from ethanol steam reforming over Ni-Cu/ZnO catalyst with over a commercial catalyst was made in this paper.


We explore how valuing Black male students' literacies within academic contexts during multimodal writing can position students' ways of knowing at the center of their learning. This centering requires a repositioning of students' cultural literacies at the core of instruction. Using multiliteracies and Critical Discourse Analysis frameworks, we analyze and share excerpts from conversations with three Black adolescent high school seniors as they composed and reflected upon authoring digital autobiographies for an assignment in their Black Literature class. These reflections illuminate how the students drew on culturally salient texts to share elements of themselves with their peer and teacher audience.


The contribution of the HLA-DRB1, -B3, and -B5 gene products in the recognition of Dermatophagoides spp. (house dust mite) by helper T cells isolated from an atopic individual (HLA-DRw12, DR7; DRw52b) with perennial rhinitis was investigated. Using a panel of histocompatible and histoincompatible accessory cells, the restriction specificity obtained for a long term T cell suggested that a component of the dust mite reactive repertoire recognized antigen in association with DRB3 gene products. Oligonucleotide DNA typing of the presenting cell panel demonstrated a correlation between the DRw52b allele and T cell responsiveness. Murine fibroblasts expressing DRw52b, but not DRw52a or -c molecules, presented antigen to both the T cell line and cloned T cells (DE26) derived from the line, indicating that the supertypic specificity DRw52b was able to restrict recognition of dust mite antigens. Additional T cell clones (DE9 and DE41) also isolated from the line were restricted by the products of the B1 gene locus (DRw12B1) as determined by murine fibroblasts transfected with the appropriate HLA-DR genes. Clone DE9 was degenerate in its restriction specificity, also recognizing dust mite presented by accessory cells expressing the DR2 subtypes. Presentation by fibroblasts transfected with DRw12B1, DR2Dw2B5 genes and EBV-transformed B cell lines expressing DR2DW21B1 and -B5 indicated that the functional site restricting recognition may be associated with residues 70 and 71 of the DR beta chain helical wall of the antigen combining site. Furthermore, we have recently demonstrated that both T cell clones DE9 and DE26 induce allergen dependent IgE synthesis in vitro.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


PURPOSE
The goal is to analyze the long-term visual outcome of extremely low-birth-weight children.

METHODS
This is a retrospective analysis of eyes of extremely low-birth-weight children on whom vision testing was performed. Visual outcomes were studied by analyzing acuity outcomes at >/=36 months of adjusted age, correlating early acuity testing with final visual outcome and evaluating adverse risk factors for vision.

RESULTS
Data from 278 eyes are included. Mean birth weight was 731g, and mean gestational age at birth was 26 weeks. 248 eyes had grating acuity outcomes measured at 73 +/- 36 months, and 183 eyes had recognition acuity testing at 76 +/- 39 months. 54% had below normal grating acuities, and 66% had below normal recognition acuities. 27% of grating outcomes and 17% of recognition outcomes were </=20/200. Abnormal early grating acuity testing was predictive of abnormal grating (P < .0001) and recognition (P = .0001) acuity testing at >/=3 years of age. A slower-than-normal rate of early visual development was predictive of abnormal grating acuity (P < .0001) and abnormal recognition acuity (P < .0001) at >/=3 years of age. Eyes diagnosed with maximal retinopathy of prematurity in zone I had lower acuity outcomes (P = .0002) than did those with maximal retinopathy of prematurity in zone II/III. Eyes of children born at </=28 weeks gestational age had 4.1 times greater risk for abnormal recognition acuity than did those of children born at >28 weeks gestational age. Eyes of children with poorer general health after premature birth had a 5.3 times greater risk of abnormal recognition acuity.

CONCLUSIONS
Long-term visual development in extremely low-birth-weight infants is problematic and associated with a high risk of subnormal acuity. Early acuity testing is useful in identifying children at greatest risk for long-term visual abnormalities. Gestational age at birth of </= 28 weeks was associated with a higher risk of an abnormal long-term outcome.


This document describes a Uniform Resource Name (URN) namespace for
the Open IPTV Forum (OIPF) for naming persistent resources defined
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schemas, classification schemes, XML Document Type Definitions (DTDs),
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Transient operation of engines leads to air fuel (A/F) ratio excursions, which can increase engine emissions. These excursions have been attributed to the formation of fuel films in the intake port, which are caused by a portion of the intake fuel impinging and adhering on the relatively cool port surface. These films act as a source or sink which cause the AF variations depending upon the transient condition. Gaining a fundamental understanding of the nature and quantity of such films may assist in future fuel mixture preparation designs that could aid in emission reductions, yet would not require overly expensive nor complicated systems.The control of air to fuel ratio is a critical issue for high performance engines: due to the low stroke-to-bore ratio the maximum power is reached at very high regimes, letting little time to the fuel to evaporate and mix with air. The injector located upstream the throttle causes a lot of fuel to impinge the throttle and intake duct walls, slowing the dynamics of mixture formation in part load conditions.The aim of this work is to present a CFD methodology for the evaluation of mixture formation dynamics applied to a Ducati high performance engine under part load conditions.The phenomena involved in the process are highly heterogeneous, and particular care must be taken to the choice of CFD models and their validation. In the present work all the main models involved in the simulations are validated against experimental tests available in the literature, selected based on the similarity of physical conditions of those of the engine configuration under analysis.The multi-cycle simulation methodology here presented reveals to be a useful tool for the evaluation of the mixture dynamics and for the evaluation of injection wall film compensator models.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


The diversity of smartphones and tablet computers has become an integral part of modern life. An essential requirement for web application development is following web usability guidelines, while designing web user interface (UI). Even a minor change in UI could lead to usability problems. Empirical evaluation methods like interviews and questionnaires with user-tests and card sorting are effective in finding such problems. Nevertheless, there are multiple obstacles preventing the application of these methods especially for evaluating minor UI changes, for instance, due to the time and human-resources they require, and the amount of data to be processed. The purpose of this current publication is to present Guideliner – a tool for implementation-time automatic evaluation of web UI conformance to predefined usability guidelines. The main contribution of the presented solution is enabling immediate cost-efficient and automated web UI evaluation that conforms to available and set standards.


OBJECTIVE--To evaluate the outcome of pregnancy in Finnish women after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on 26 April 1986. DESIGN--Geographic and temporal cohort study. SETTING--Finland divided into three zones according to amount of radioactive fallout. SUBJECTS--All children who were exposed to radiation during their fetal development. Children born before any effects of the accident could be postulated--that is, between 1 January 1984 and 30 June 1986--served as controls. INTERVENTIONS--Children were divided into three temporal groups: controls, children who were expected to be born in August to December 1986, and children who were expected to be born in February to December 1987. They were also divided, separately, into three groups according to the three geographic zones. END POINT--Incidence of congenital malformations, preterm births, and perinatal deaths. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS--There were no significant differences in the incidence of malformations or perinatal deaths among the three temporal and three geographic groups. A significant increase in preterm births occurred among children who were exposed to radiation during the first trimester whose mothers lived in zones 2 and 3, where the external dose rate and estimated surface activity of caesium-137 were highest. CONCLUSIONS--The results suggest that the amount of radioactive fallout that Finnish people were exposed to after the accident at Chernobyl was not high enough to cause fetal damage in children born at term. The higher incidence of premature births among malformed children in the most heavily polluted areas, however, remains unexplained.


Immune checkpoint blockade has driven a revolution in modern oncology, and robust drug development of immune checkpoint inhibitors is underway in both solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. High response rates to programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) blockade using nivolumab or pembrolizumab in classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) and several variants of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) revealed an intrinsic biological sensitivity to this approach, and work is ongoing exploring combinations with immune checkpoint inhibitors in both cHL and NHL. There are also preliminary data suggesting antitumor efficacy of PD-1 inhibitors used in combination with immunomodulatory drugs in multiple myeloma, and effects of novel monoclonal antibody therapies on the tumor microenvironment may lead to synergy with checkpoint blockade. Although immune checkpoint inhibitors are generally well tolerated, clinicians must use caution and remain vigilant when treating patients with these agents in order to identify immune-related toxicities and prevent treatment-related morbidity and mortality. Autologous stem cell transplant is a useful tool for treatment of hematologic malignancies and has potential as a platform for use of immune checkpoint inhibitors. An important safety signal has emerged surrounding the risk of graft-versus-host disease associated with use of PD-1 inhibitors before and after allogeneic stem cell transplant. We aim to discuss the facts known to date in the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors for patients with lymphoid malignancies and our hopes for expanding the benefits of immunotherapy to patients in the future. Clin Cancer Res; 24(5); 1002–10. ©2017 AACR.


Psychological and training characteristics of 44 ultramarathoners competing in a 50-mile trail race were studied. These psychological and training variables were used to distinguish differences between survivors and casualties in the race and to predict race time. In addition, mood changes and runners physical symptoms were examined to assess changes from pre to post-race. Results show a mood profile and self-motivation scores similar to other athletic populations. Mood profile changed from pre to post race and training pace was found to be a highly significant factor in predicting finish time.


Background: The utility of a rapid on-site cytological evaluation (ROSE) for the assessment of EBUS-TBNA specimens is still unknown. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the utility of ROSE during EBUS-TBNA. Methods: This study was a retrospective analysis of 36 patients who had undergone EBUS-TBNA for the diagnosis of mediastinal and/or hilar lymphadenopathy between January 2012 and September 2013. We compared the following points between the groups of patients who underwent EBUS-TBNA with/without ROSE: the length of the examination for EBUS-TBNA, the number of needle aspirations per patient, complications, diagnostic yields and additional examinations needed. Results: ROSE was performed in 18 of 36 patients. Available specimens for the diagnosis were obtained from 17 of 18 (94.4%) cases without ROSE and 17 of 18 (94.4%) with ROSE. The on-site diagnosis and final diagnosis were concordant in 11 of 17 (64.0%) cases without ROSE and 13 of 17 (76.4%) with ROSE. There were no significant differences in the diagnostic yield, the number of needle aspirations, the rate of complications or clinical decision making between the two groups. The mean examination for EBUS-TBNA was 31.4 min in cases without ROSE and 18.4 min in those with ROSE (p Conclusions: ROSE during EBUS-TBNA could reduce the length of the EBUS-TBNA and make additional examinations unnecessary. ROSE may be a beneficial tool for the management of EBUS-TBNA specimens.


Deaths in custody often attract considerable public interest. While the State's duties in relation to deaths in custody are clear, the key obstacles faced in trying to prevent these deaths relate to the nature of Western Australia's police investigation model and the coronial system. Despite the number of deaths in custody remaining relatively stable in recent years, there is a lot more that can be done to prevent deaths occurring.

The initial police investigation into any death in custody must be independent, efficient and effective. This allows the police to obtain evidence relating to the death and provide it to the coroner, and if an offence has been committed, to the prosecutor. The Western Australian model of police investigation is not optimal because it relies on police to investigate all deaths in custody, even when the deceased was in police custody or died as a result of police operations. This poses a conflict of interest and must be addressed.

The coroner has the unique ability to make recommendations to prevent deaths occurring. There are a number of issues associated with Western Australia's coronial system which mean that the coroner's ability to prevent deaths in custody is not being fulfilled. These issues include that there is no system in place to monitor whether coronial recommendations are implemented, and that the coroner relies on the initial police investigation, which is conducted using a flawed model.

This paper will discuss several systemic issues associated with police investigations and the coronial system. These issues seriously inhibit the potential to prevent deaths in custody because systemic and non-systemic issues are potentially not being identified or addressed. To resolve these issues, the Western Australian police investigation model and coronial system must be reformed.


Endostatin is an important inhibitory molecule which mediates the sequential steps involved in angiogenesis. Lower level or impaired function of endostatin is associated with a higher risk of developing malignant solid tumors and with a worse prognosis of the disease. The endostatin N104 polymorphism might be associated with an impaired ability to inhibit angiogenesis. We analyzed the tissues from 98 Caucasian prostate cancer patients for the presence of D104N polymorphism. The frequencies of homozygous 4349G/G(104D/D), and heterozygous 4349G/A(104D/N) were 83.67%(82/98) and 16.33%(16/98), respectively; no individuals were homozygous 4349A/A(104N/N). With the Fisher's exact test we found the genotype of D104N was not significantly related to age, tumor grade, PSA and clinical stage ( P > 0.05). There was no difference in relapse free survival(RFS) or overall survival(OS) between patients with 104D/N and those with 104D/D ( P = 0.8283, 0.3713 respectively). We concluded thatendostatin polymorphism was not associated with the aggressiveness of prostate cancer in Caucasian patients.


Coastal morphologic features associated with past shoreline transgressions and sealevel highstands can provide insight into the rates and processes associated with coastal response to the modern global rise in sea level. Along the eastern and southern Brazilian coasts of South America, 6000 years of sea-level fall have preserved late-stage transgressive and sea-level highstand features 1‐4 m above present mean sea level and several kilome ters landward of modern shorelines. GPS with real-time kinematics data, ground-penetrating radar, stratigraphy, and radiocarbon dating within a 2‐3-km-wide river-associated strandplain in central Santa Catarina (southern Brazil) uncovered a diverse set of late-stage transgressive and highstand deposits. Here, the highstand took the forms of (1) an exposed bedrock coast in areas of high wave energy and low sediment supply; (2) a 3.8-m-high transgressive barrier ridge where landward barrier migration was prohibited by the presence of shallow bedrock; and (3) a complete barrier-island complex containing a 5.2-m-high barrier ridge, washover deposits, a paleo-inlet, and a backbarrier lowland, formed in a protected cove with ample sediment supply from small local streams and the erosion of upland sediments. Similar signatures of the mid-Holocene highstand can be traced across all coastal Brazilian states. This study presents the fi rst complete compilation of the diversity of these sedimentary sequences. They are broadly classifi ed here as exposed bedrock coasts (type A), back barrier deposits (type B), transgressive barrier ridges (type C), and barrier-island complexes (type D), according to localized conditions of upland migration potential, wave exposure, and sediment supply. These Brazilian systems present a paradigm for understanding future coastal response to climate change and accelerated sea-level rise: the recognition of a minimum threshold sea-level-rise rate of ~2 mm yr ‐1 above which transgression proceeded too rapidly for the formation of these stable accretionary shoreline features demonstrates the nonlinearity of coastal response to sea-level change, and the site specifi city of conditions associated with the formation of each highstand deposit type, even within a single small embayment, demonstrates the non-uniformity of that response.


UNLABELLED
Impaired cockpit environment may influence both well-being and performance of pilots.

OBJECTIVE
To study the perception of cockpit environment among pilots, in relation to demographic factors, and type of aircraft (B767-300, B737-600, DC9/21-41, MD 81/90 series).

METHODS
A standardized questionnaire was mailed to all pilots in one airline company; 81% participated (n = 622). All flights were non-smoking flights and the B767 was the only aircraft operated on intercontinental flights. The DC9 was the only aircraft without air recirculation. Multiple logistic regression analysis was applied, controlling for age, gender, smoking, perceived psychosocial work environment, and type of aircraft.

RESULTS
Younger age and a history of atopy and stress due to excess work were the main predictors of symptom and environmental perceptions. The most common symptoms were fatigue (14%), facial dermal (10%), and nasal symptoms (9%). Common complaints on cockpit environment were dry air (53%), dust and dirt (48%), noise (46%), and inadequate illumination (34%). Using the DC9 as a reference category, Boeing 767 pilots had more fatigue (OR 19.5; p < 0.001), throat symptoms (OR = 4.40; p < 0.05), complaints on dry air (OR = 2.93; p < 0.01), stuffy air (OR = 4.60; p < 0.01), static electricity (OR = 6.39; < 0.05), and dust (OR = 2.01; p < 0.05). Boeing 737 pilots had more complaints on noise (OR = 4.01; p < 0.001) and dust (OR = 1.81; p < 0.05). MD 81/90 pilots had more complaints on dry air (OR = 1.76; p < 0.05), dust (OR = 1.92; p < 0.05), and inadequate illumination (OR = 2.08; p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
Complaints on the cockpit environment were common and differed between different types of aircraft. This indicates a need to optimize the cockpit environment, e.g., increase the cleaning and relative air humidity.


The weathering of hemp fiber influences their appearance and mechanical properties. The aim of this study is to better understand the mechanism of aging of hemp fiber exposed to different conditions (moisture, heat and UV aging). A xenon aging test machine was used to simulate and accelerate the natural ageing. The influence of each aging condition on the mechanical properties of hemp fiber is investigated by micro tensile tests. The microstructures and water absorption of these natural fibers were analyzed by means of SEM and gravimetric methods. Humidity absorption of hemp fibers depends on the relative humidity, not concerning the temperature. Temperature accelerates the saturation of fibers. All aging process reduced the mechanical properties of hemp fibers. After 4 weeks exposure, fibers aged by UV has the worst mechanical properties compared to humidity and temperature aging.


This report presents our recent and ongoing work developing a consistent decentralized data fusion approach for robust multi-robot SLAM in dangerous, unknown environments. The DDF-SAM 2.0 approach extends our previous work by combining local and neighborhood information in a single, consistent augmented local map, without the overly conservative to avoiding information double-counting in the previous DDF-SAM approach. We introduce the anti-factor as a means to subtract information in graphical SLAM systems, and illustrate its use to both replace information in an incremental solver and to cancel out neighborhood information from shared summarized maps. Evaluations in a synthetic example environment demonstrate that we avoid double-counting information.


We examine the distinctions between 'playing' and 'playing at' and between deep and surface acting made by Goffman and Hochschild, using examples from stage-rehearsals. This reveals how stage actors switch between these modes and employ various manifestations, rather than using either of them exclusively. The findings are thought to have conceptual implications beyond the particular case of stage acting. One tentative conclusion is that the difference between an actor rehearsing an emotion-laden situation and experiencing a similar situation in real life lies in how the situation is confronted and handled rather than in the actual emotions.


Since 2006, Medicare beneficiaries have been able to obtain prescription drug coverage through standalone prescription drug plans or their Medicare Advantage (MA) health plan, options exercised in 2015 by 72 percent of beneficiaries. Using data from community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries older than age sixty-four in 700 plans surveyed from 2007 to 2014, we compared beneficiaries' assessments of Medicare prescription drug coverage when provided by standalone plans or integrated into an MA plan. Beneficiaries in standalone plans consistently reported less positive experiences with prescription drug plans (ease of getting medications, getting coverage information, and getting cost information) than their MA counterparts. Because MA plans are responsible for overall health care costs, they might have more integrated systems and greater incentives than standalone prescription drug plans to provide enrollees medications and information effectively, including, since 2010, quality bonus payments to these MA plans under provisions of the Affordable Care Act.


We present a lossless compressor for multispectral images that exploits interband correlations. Each band is divided into blocks, to which a wavelet transform is applied. The wavelet coefficients are predicted by means of a linear combination of coefficients belonging to the same orientation and spatial location. The prediction errors are then encoded with an entropy - based coder. Our original contributions are i) the inclusion, among the candidates for prediction, of coefficients of the same location from other spectral bands, ii) the calculation of weights tuned to the landscape being processed, iii) a fast block classification and a different band-ordering for each landscape. Our compressor reduces the size of an image to about a fourth of its original size. Our method is equivalent to LOCO-I, on 3 of the images tested it was superior. It is superior to other lossless compressors: WinZip, JPEG2000 and PNG.


A clinical research paper led by Stanford investigators has demonstrated that a brain-to-computer hookup can enable people with paralysis to type via direct brain control at the highest speeds and accuracy levels reported to date. The report involved three study participants with severe limb weakness — two from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig's disease, and one from a spinal cord injury. They each had one or two baby-aspirin-sized electrode arrays placed in their brains to record signals from the motor cortex, a region controlling muscle movement. These signals were transmitted to a computer via a cable and translated by algorithms into point-and-click commands guiding a cursor to characters on an onscreen keyboard. Each participant, after minimal training, mastered the technique sufficiently to outperform the results of any previous test of brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, for enhancing communication by people with similarly impaired movement. Notably, the study participants achieved these typing rates without the use of automatic word-completion assistance common in electronic keyboarding applications nowadays, which likely would have boosted their performance. One participant, Dennis Degray of Menlo Park, California, was able to type 39 correct characters per minute, equivalent to about eight words per minute.


Tuberculosis can cause great losses in captive colonies of various animal species. In South Africa the culprit is the human type of tubercle bacillus. Interspecific transmission of tuberculosis infection amongst laboratory animals, notably primates, is known to occur, and often handlers and caretakers act as the source of infection. The need for preventive measures in laboratory colonies and procedures for case finding and treatment of tuberculous animals are discussed. Indiscriminate destruction of diseased animals is opposed. The South African situation as revealed by questionnaire survey is described.


Limitations with current clinical tools available for diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer (PCa) have resulted in overdiagnosis and costly overtreatment, which is affecting the outcomes and quality of life of men. The biotech industry is investing significant resources into developing more specific biomarkers for PCa detection and patient stratification that would greatly advance the decision-making processes behind PCa management and treatment. In this review, we focus on those biomarkers that have been translated into commercial tests available to clinicians. Since these tests aim to fill specific gaps during the decision-making process of PCa management, we have grouped them based on the clinical question they claim to address, that is, improved PCa screening, false-negative biopsy dilemma, prognostic tests following a positive biopsy and tests predicting relapse/metastases after surgery. We evaluate each test with respect to its development, platform, clinical validation, biomatrix, regulatory approval status and cost.


Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models are commonly used for global agricultural market analysis. However, concerns are sometimes raised about the quality of their output since key parameters may not be econometrically estimated and little emphasis is generally given to model assessment. This article addresses the latter issue by developing an approach to validating CGE models based on the ability to reproduce observed price volatility in agricultural markets. We show how patterns in the deviations between model predictions and validation criteria can be used to identify the weak points of a model and guide development of improved specifications with firmer empirical foundations.


Research into the origins of landscape has a long and distinguished tradition. In America, landscape studies form the core of physical geology while elsewhere the study of landscape development has spread beyond the confines of geology to develop a firmer foothold in the geographical tradition, particularly in geomorphology. The development of ideas in landscape study has, however, been neither steady nor sequential. It has been characterized instead by several major conceptual shifts interspersed with periods of reinforcement or neglect. Within geomorphology, and certainly within the English-speaking world, the most important of these shifts occurred in the early 1960s with the move from denudation chronology of landscapes as a core activity to an emphasis on process-based investigation of individual landforms. In geology, the 1960s also marked an important change in perspective. Publication of plate tectonic theories (sea-floor spreading, continental drift, subduction and mountain building) had far-reaching consequences for all earth science. In particular, plate tectonics made the study of apparently ancient processes (billions of years old) applicable to the present-day with, for example, application to earthquake studies. Whilst the initial shift towards process studies was a response to the desire for a better understanding of the mechanisms driving landscape change, it was not long before this goal became relegated in the eyes of many of its practitioners. As a consequence, process study became an end in itself, rather than a means to an end. This movement has been reinforced in recent years by a demand for greater 'relevance' from, for


A detailed Geological and Petrophysical characterization was achieved in a stepwise approach as part of full field 3D Reservoir Modeling and Simulation study for Minagish reservoir in the Greater Burgan field in Kuwait. Foundation of Reservoir Rock Types (RRT) was developed in first step based on Mercury Injection Capillary Pressure (MICP) dataset. A combination of Discriminant Analysis and Indexed Self Organizing Map (SOM) was used for rock type classification using hyperbolic tangent method. To improve classification of bimodal Pc curves, additional pressure values at different non-wetting phase saturations were used in conjunction with above mentioned parameters. In second step, the available Routine Core Analysis (RCA) porosity, permeability data was grouped together based on common patterns to generate rock types in RCA domain. Blind tests in two of the cored wells revealed a conformance of 81% between MICP and RCA Petrophysical Groups (PG). In the final step of the process, petrophysical groups were propagated in log domain using available log measurements common in all the wells of the field. It was challenging to establish a high level of accuracy for PG's in log domain mainly due to fine scale heterogeneity and inability of log data to capture rock fabric variation. This porosity estimate, coupled with rock type classification, helped to derive a continuous permeability log with a correlation coefficient of 0.89 validated in key cored wells. The porosity and permeability data in all the wells was incorporated in the 3D geocellular model after up-scaling honoring the unique, per rock type, Phi-K relationship. Modeled capillary pressure curves generated for each rock type in the core domain using MICP data set in 3 wells were used in saturation height modeling. The modeled equation was captured in the 3D geocellular model after populating rock types in the 3D grid to map water saturation for volumetric estimation.


Sanjad-Sakati syndrome (SSS) is a rare genetic disorder with autosomal recessive pattern of inheritance characterized by hypoparathyroidism, sever growth failure, mental retardation, susceptibility to chest infection, and dentofacial anomalies. A child with SSS was referred to the dental departmentseeking dental help for sever dental caries which was attributed to his dietary habits and quality of dental tissues. Full restorative rehabilitation was done under general anesthesia. Two years later, the child presented with recurrent caries affecting uncrowned teeth. High carries recurrence rate was blamed for the nutritional habits endorsed by the parents. Only steel crowned teeth survived such hostile oral environment which suggested shifting of treatment strategy towards full coverage restorations instead of classical cavity preparations and fillings during a second attempt for dental treatment under general anesthesia and for the dental treatment of two cousins of the same child. The author recommends effective health education for parents including the nature of their child's genetic disorder, nutritional needs, and dental health education to improve the life style of such children.


Not until the turn of this century has immunotherapy become a fundamental component of cancer treatment. While monotherapy with immune modulators, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, provides a subset of patients with durable clinical benefit and possible cure, combination therapy offers the potential for antitumor activity in a greater number of patients. The field of immunology has provided us with a plethora of potential molecules and pathways to target. This abundance makes it impractical to empirically test all possible combinations efficiently. We recommend that potential immunotherapy combinations be chosen based on sound rationale and available data to address the mechanisms of primary and acquired immune resistance. Novel trial designs may increase the proportion of patients receiving potentially efficacious treatments and, at the same time, better define the balance of clinical activity and safety. We believe that implementing a strategic approach in the early development of immunotherapy combinations will expedite the delivery of more effective therapies with improved safety and durable outcomes. Clin Cancer Res; 23(17); 4980–91. ©2017 AACR. See all articles in this CCR Focus section, "Clinical Trial Design Considerations in the Immuno-oncology Era."


Seven hundred and twenty base pairs (bp) of the mitochondrial control region from 73 finless porpoises, Neophocaena phocaenoides, in Chinese waters were sequenced. Thirteen variable sites were determined and 17 haplotypes were defined. Of these, 5 and 7 were found only in the Yellow Sea population and the South China Sea population, respectively, whereas no specific haplotype was found in the Yangtze River population. Phylogenetic analyses using NJ and ML algorithm did not divide the haplotypes into monophyletic clades representing recognized geographic populations of finless porpoises in Chinese waters, suggesting the existence of migration and gene flow among populations. Analysis of molecular variance showed the obvious population genetic structure (Φ st = 0.41, P < 0.05); however, the structure was mainly between either the Yangtze River population or the Yellow Sea population and the South China Sea population. The genetic diversity (nucleotide diversity and haplotypic diversity) of the Yellow Sea population was significantly higher than those of the Yangtze River population and the South China Sea population, suggesting the relatively later divergence of the latter two populations and supporting the Yellow Sea population as the original center of Neophocaena.


The 2005 film Goal! exemplifies what the Hollywood sports film does best: it offers an emotionally engaging, utopian story of a talented athlete whose hard work and determination make possible the overcoming of social disadvantage to achieve stardom. Goal! also follows the pattern for most sports films by offsetting the overly simplistic formula for such success by to some degree realistically portraying the business of professional football – as well as its protagonist Santiago Munez's experience of immigration – that make up the world in which the story takes place. Goal! exemplifies the increased influence of globalization on commercial sports and movies. Its globalized appeal may have helped with football fans who understand the game as an international sport, but it may have also limited its access to viewers in the USA where globalization represents a threat to the cultural exceptionalism that the most popular American sports have long helped to define.


This paper presents an experiment designed to compare a contract-based programming method with a reference programming method based on exceptions. The purpose was to evaluate whether contracts would shorten the development time, improve work satisfaction and increase the quality of the resulting software program. The experiment was carried out in a project work course for students in the computer science program at Karlstad University. The students were to solve an assignment in groups of four within a period of ten weeks. Half of the groups used the contract-based method and the other half the exception based method. For statistical analysis we gathered data on time consumption and work satisfaction on daily report forms. The results show that there was a gain in the time spent on implementation of the assignment when the contract-based method is used, but show no significant difference in total time consumption. The results give a weak indication that work satisfaction was slightly higher in the groups using the contract-based method. The resulting programs were analyzed for a range of quality metrics, but no significant differences were found that were directly related to the methods.


Electronic auctions have rapidly increased in popularity, but the consequences of switching to an electronic auction are unclear. In part this is because multiple changes occur at the same time so one can only observe the combined effect of these changes and not the effect of each separate change. For instance, electronic bidders face lower transaction costs, but also have less information about product quality and about the state of the market such as the number of bidders. In this paper, we report a study of bidding behavior at a large Dutch flower auction in which we are able to separate some of these effects. We compare electronic bidders with traditional bidders and when correcting for quality differences and seasonal effects, we find that they to bid lower on average than traditional buyers, as predicted by Bakos (1991, 1997). The electronic bidders were divided in two subgroups, internal bidders and external bidders. The external bidders had less product quality information and market state information than the internal bidders. This led the external bidders to not only bid significantly higher than the internal bidders, but in fact as high as the traditional bidders. Both these effects run counter to theoretical predictions and some possible alternative explanations are offered. In general, it highlights the importance of focusing the information flows that occur in a market.


One of the most persistent beliefs about hypnosis is its ability to transcend mnemonic abilities. This belief has paved the way to the use of hypnosis in the clinical and legal arenas. The authors review the phenomena of hypnotic hypermnesia, pseudo-memories, and amnesia in light of current knowledge of hypnosis and memory. The investigation of the relation between hypnosis and memory processes has played an important role in our understanding of memory in action. Hypnosis provides a fertile field to explore the social, neuropsychological, and cognitive variables at play when individuals are asked to remember or to forget their past. We suggest promising avenues of research that may further our knowledge of the building blocks of memories and the mechanisms that leads to forgetfulness.


There is a profound linkage between the quality of a university and its financial resources. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge rank among the world's finest educational institutions, and are able to draw on invested assets that are large by any standards. Endowment Asset Management explores how the colleges that comprise these two great universities make their investment decisions. Oxford and Cambridge are collegiate institutions, each consisting of a federal university and over 30 constituent colleges. While the colleges may have ostensibly similar missions, they are governed independently. Since they interpret their investment objectives differently, this gives rise to some remarkably dissimilar approaches to investment, which the authors explore in detail. The first study of its kind, Endowment Asset Management analyses the objectives, investment philosophy, asset management and governance of over 60 college and university endowment funds. Drawing on exhaustive research and detailed discussions with Oxford and Cambridge investment bursars, the authors investigate issues such as asset allocation and spending policy, which have a major influence on the institutions' financial health. This study reveals the colleges' individualism and diversity, and carefully analyses their strategies, which range from the traditional to cutting edge. The authors' findings are thought provoking for anyone concerned with the assets of foundations, endowments, charities, family offices, or trusts. All investors with a long-term investment horizon will find it extremely engaging.


Seven patients with hepatitis delta virus (HDV) cirrhosis underwent liver transplantation. In every case the HDV infection was florid but accompanied by an inactive hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The patients were given anti‐HB surface antigen (HBsAg) serum globulins and HBV vaccine. Two patients cleared the HBsAg and the HDV, and are alive and well 14 and 15 months, respectively, after transplantation. HDV infection recurred in the other five patients: hepatitis developed in three, another died, and the fifth was re‐transplanted for causes unrelated to viral hepatitis (reinfection was shown by the presence of HD antigen in the graft). Liver transplantation is feasible in patients with HDV disease but involves a high risk of HDV reinfection that cannot be predicted by the virological pattern of the native HBV infection or prevented by conventional HBV prophylaxis.


We show that we can optimally represent the set of 2D images produced by the point features of a rigid 3D model as two lines in two high-dimensional spaces. We then decribe a working recognition system in which we represent these spaces discretely in a hash table. We can access this table at run time to find all the groups of model features that could match a group of image features, accounting for the effects of sensing error. We also use this representation of a model''s images to demonstrate significant new limitations of two other approaches to recognition: invariants, and non- accidental properties.


A 20-year-old Asian immigrant female medical student presented to a health clinic with a four months history of lethargic feeling and occasional cough at night. Her Past Medical History revealed tuberculosis and discontinued treatment prior to 24 weeks due to lack of health care awareness. Discontinuing treatment prior to completion can leave patients infectious and symptomatic [1]. A chest x-ray (CXR) was done in this patient and revealed elevation of the left hilum and minimal fibrocavitary changes in the immediate left infraclavicular area [2-4]. A Tuberculin Skin Test (TST) was placed which resulted in a 9 mm induration. Per hospital protocol, sputum specimens were collected for acid fast stain-culture and resulted in negative Acid Fast Bacilli (AFB) from pooled sample.


Background: The hepatopathy associated with short bowel syndrome (SBS) is a multifactorial disease associated with poor prognosis. Besides intestinal transplantation, no other treatment has been shown effective. The current study evaluated the efficacy of betaine for the treatment of hepatopathy associated with SBS. Methods: A prospective, unicentric, non-placebo controlled trial was carried out. After initial evaluation, 10g of betaine anhydrous was administrated to SBS patients in two divided doses for three months. The hepatic steatosis was assessed through nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), the inflammatory response by interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and ferritin, besides the hepatic lesion through hepatic enzymes and bilirubin. Furthermore, the effect of betaine on homocysteine was evaluated as well as its safety and tolerability in this group of patients. Results: After three months supplementation, patients showed decreased percentage of hepatic fat (p = 0.03) through triphasic NMR examination. There was no significant reduction of serum levels for inflammatory proteins and hepatic lesion markers. Homocysteinemia also did not present significant decrease. The most prevalent side effects were diarrhea and nausea, reported in 62% of the participants; however, these symptoms were transient and not severe enough to justify the treatment interruption. Parenteral nutrition-dependent patients did not present different hepatic lesion degree compared to patients who do not need the prolonged use of it. Conclusions: Betaine was shown to be a potential agent for the treatment of hepatopathy associated with SBS, which was evidenced by NMR, although the markers for hepatic lesion have not presented significant decrease.


The International Conference European Union's History, Culture and Citizenship was founded in 2008 and it is dedicated to the academic teachers and researchers, lawyers, magistrates, Ph.D. students and post-doctoral researchers into legal and administrative sciences and their auxiliary sciences, from Romania and abroad. Subjects for submission include the following main areas, but are not limited to them: Public Law, Private Law, Protection of human rights and protection against discrimination, European Union law, Forensics and Criminology, Legal Sociology, History of law, juridical philosophy. The journal promotes the original researches that contributes to the knowledge progress and are motivated by the necessity of studying the theory and practice in the mentioned areas.
Also, the journal aims to create a forum for disciplinary and interdisciplinary debates and to become a standard in the national and international juridical and administrative research. Since its first issue, notable figures in the field of law and auxiliary sciences become members of the journal editorial board, such as: Professor Ph.D. DDr.h.c., M.C.L. Heribert Franz KOECK- Universitat Johannes Kepler Linz, Austria, Professor Ph.D. hab., Dr.h.c. mult. Boguslaw BANASZAK – University of Applied Science (PWSZ) Legnica, University of Zielona Gora, Poland Professor Ph.D. Dr. h.c. mult. Herbert SCHAMBECK- Universitat Johannes Kepler Linz, Austria, Professor Ph.D. Eugen CHELARU - University of Pitesti, Romania and many others.
Also, among the collaborators, we have to mention European specialists in legal and administrative sciences who, at the beginning, have published studies and articles of interest in the field, some of them becoming, then, members of the editorial board. For example: Professor Ph.D. Dr.h.c. Rainer ARNOLD - Universitat Regensburg, Deutschland/Germany, Professor Ph.D. hab., Professor Ph.D. Cristina Hermida DELLLANO - Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spania, Professor Ph.D. Maria ORLOV - Institute of Administrative Sciences of Moldova, Republic of Moldova etc.
In the last two issues (2014, 2015) the studies were written only in English and published on-line with Online: ISSN 2360- 395X, CD-ROM: ISSN 2360 – 1841, ISSN-L 2360 – 1841, in order to increase the national and international visibility of the journal.


PURPOSE
To validate velocity measurements produced by spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) in an in vitro laminar flow model.

METHODS
A 30-mL syringe filled with skim milk was inserted into a syringe pump. Intravenous (i.v.) tubing connected the syringe within the pump to a glass capillary tube (internal diameter, 0.579 mm) shallowly embedded in agarose gel, then to a collection reservoir. SD-OCT imaging was performed with an anterior segment eye scanner and optics engine coupled with a 100-nm bandwidth broadband superluminescent diode. Scan density of 128 x 128 A-scans was spread over a 4 x 4 mm area, and each A-scan was 2 mm in length. Fifteen sequential stationary A-scans were obtained at each 128 x 128 position, and Doppler shifts were calculated from temporal changes in phase. The beam-to-flow vector Doppler angle was determined from three-dimensional scans.

RESULTS
In all reflectance and Doppler images, a clear laminar flow pattern was observed, with v(max) appearing in the center of the flow column. Phase wrapping was observed at all measured flow velocities, and fringe washout progressively shattered reflectance and phase signals beyond the Nyquist limit. The observed percentages of the velocity profile at or below Nyquist frequency was highly correlated with the predicted percentages (R(2)=0.934; P=0.007).

CONCLUSIONS
SD-OCT provides objective Doppler measurements of laminar fluid flow in an in vitro flow system in a range up to the Nyquist limit.


During the last two decades, the built environment had changed dramatically. The modifications linked with basic markers, market participators and with therefor with the requirements for the arising from changed nature of built environment. Beside the political influences are very important those one that arise as obligation conversion of higher education, the both one built environment schools vs business schools are involved. According the market needs, is evidential that trough LLL paradigm on the one hand and professional requirements on the other hand, the essential and accepted movement is available.


A novel phantom has been developed to measure the modulation transfer function (MTF) in 3D for x-ray computed tomography. The phantom consists of three tungsten wires, positioned nearly orthogonal to each other. Simultaneous measurements of the MTF are taken at various locations along the three orthogonal reconstructed planes. Our computed mammotomography (CmT) system uses a Varian Paxscan 2520 digital x-ray detector which can be positioned anywhere in ~2pi steradian band and can have arbitrary trajectories. With a half-cone beam geometry and with the phantom positioned near the center of rotation, projection images are acquired over 360 degrees. Various 3D orbits are evaluated including vertical axis of rotation and saddle. Reconstructions were performed using an iterative ordered-subsets transmission algorithm on rebinned projection images, using various numbers of iterations. Rotation of reconstructed slices isolated each wire into its own plane. At various locations along the length of each wire, corresponding MTFs were calculated from 1D line spread functions. Through measurement, accuracy of wire method was verified by comparison of the projection MTFs computed from a wire and a standard edge device. Results indicated minor variations in MTF among the three orthogonal planes, which imply a high degree of uniform sampling in the imaged volume. Findings indicate that the phantom can be used to assess the intrinsic image resolution in 3D as well as potential degradative effects of measurements in various media.


The Book>>> Electrical Banana Electrical Banana is the first definitive examination of the interna-tional language of psychedelia, focusing on the most important practitioners in their respec-tive fields with a deft combination of hundreds of unseen images and exclusive interviews and essays, Electrical Banana aims to revise the com-mon perception of psychedelic art, showing it to be more innovative, compelling, and revolution-ary than was ever thought before. The artists include: Marijke Kroger, a Dutch art-ist responsible for dressing the Beatles; Mati Klarwein, who painted the cover for Miles Dav-is' Bitches Brew; Keiichi Taanami, the Japanese master of psychedelic posters; Heinz Edelmann, the German illustrator and designer of the Yel-low Submarine animated film; Tadanori Yokoo, whose prints and books, defined the '6os in Ja-pan; Dudley Edwards, a painter, car designer, and graphic embellisher for the London rock scene, and the enigmatic Australian Martin Sharp, whose work for Cream and underground mag-azines made him a 'hippie household name in Europe.


Due to the fragility of forest ecosystems, developing forest recreational resources must consider sustainable ecological, economic, and social development, and reduce impacts from recreational activities. Diverse forests with different biodiversity could promote forest ecosystem services and resistance to the pressure of tourism development. Under such circumstance, it is important to ensure that the travel and tourism industry develops under the principle of sustainable management and assists ecosystem conservation. Forest ecosystem services (FES) have received increasing attention. Especially, the amenity value provided by FES is beneficial for enhancing human health, and has gained popularity. Huisun National Forest Park (HNFP) has the greatest natural forests in Taiwan, and tourists visit the HNFP for the well-preserved environment, abundance of green space, cleanliness, beautiful scenery, and quietness. This study assessed the amenity value of the Huisun National Forest Park (HNFP) by adopting the payment card method via face-to-face survey data of 223 respondents. The annual amenity value of the HNFP per person is NT$2884 in winter and NT$2905 in summer. The total annual amenity value of the HNFP is NT$473,978,430–474,755,774. The results showed that gender, age, education level, monthly income, place of residence, participation in environmental groups, frequency of visiting the HNFP, and stay period significantly influence willingness to pay (WTP). This study concludes that an ecologically sustainable forest with ecosystem services could provide multiple benefits to different stakeholders.


In wireless sensor networks, sensor nodes can be organized either randomly or deterministically according to regular deployment patterns. Due to the trade-offs between performance and cost, evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of node deployment strategies are fundamental issues to be solved. In this paper, we present a framework for analyzing node deployment schemes in terms of three performance metrics: coverage, lifetime, and cost. Based on the proposed coverage analysis model, energy model and cost model, we compare the performance of two node deployment schemes: rectangle mesh and uniformly random. The results show that the rectangle mesh scheme is generally better than the uniformly random scheme in terms of coverage and network lifetime. Our method can be used to evaluate the benefits of different deployment schemes and thus provide guidelines for network designers.


This study seeks to understand how Jordan banking sector is affected by the Corporate Governance (CG) requirements released by Basle Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The study reveals that Jordan Banking Sector has been paying CG a great deal of attention. Therefore, the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) issued Bank Directors Handbook of CG which has been developed with the objective of enhancing the CG of Jordanian banks. Further to issuing the Handbook, the CBJ is continuing its efforts to enhance CG by preparing the CG Code which is intended to promote international best practice in the CG of Jordanian Banks, and asked each bank to keep this code under review and be developed and amended as required from time to time to meet the changing needs and expectations of the bank and the marketplace. As a result, banks in Jordan comply with CG requirements by acting in accordance with a request from the CBJ based on BCBS and OECD guidelines and requirements which enhance the CG procedures. Therefore, CG continues to gain attention and importance from parties concerned in Jordan but many steps need to be done in the future.


Correct irrigation management aims to determine the right amount of water at the right time. Also, it is one of the available tools to reduce energy and water costs, enabling maximum crop production. Considering these aspects, a study was conducted to determine the effect s of different soil water tensions on rapeseed crop. For this purpose, an experiment was carried out in Brazil, at the department of Agricultural Engineering at the Federal University of Lavras, from April to October 2008. The experimental design was completely randomised, with four treatments of different soil water tensions (20, 40, 80 and 120 kPa) and four replicates amounting to 16 experimental plots. Crop vegetative, productive parameters and qualitative grain parameters were evaluated. According to the variance analysis, different soil water tensions affected the number of pods, the number of branches, dry matter of the vegetative part, dry matter of pods, total dry matter and yield, by F test at 5% probability. While, the physical quality of the grains, the weight of 1000 grains and specific matter were not affected by treatments. Water retained at 25 cm of depth and at 20 kPa tension proved to be a good indicator of the correct amount of water to start irrigation of rapeseed crop, as the highest grain yield was achieved with this treatment. Grain yield sensitivity to water deficit, represented by yield response factor ky, was lower than one , indicating that supplementary irrigation caused proportionally smaller yield decreases when compared to the reduction in applied water. Keywords: water irrigation, rapeseed, yield, water tension on soil


A recurring theme in the study of society is the concentration of influence and power that is driven through unequal membership of groups and associations. In some instances these bodies constitute a small world while in others they are fragmented into distinct cliques. This paper presents a new model of clubs and networks to understand the sources of individual marginalization and the origins of different club networks. In our model, individuals seek to become members of clubs while clubs wish to have members. Club value is increasing in its size and in the strength of ties with other clubs. We show that a stable membership profile exhibits marginalization of individuals and that this is generally not welfare maximizing. Our second result shows that if returns from strength of ties are convex (concave) then stable memberships support fragmented networks with strong ties (small worlds held together by weak ties). We illustrate the value of these theoretical results through case studies of inter-locking directorates and boards of editors of journals. Abstract A recurring theme in the study of society is the concentration of influence and power that is driven through unequal membership of groups and associations. In some instances these bodies constitute a small world while in others they are fragmented into distinct cliques. This paper presents a new model of clubs and networks to understand the sources of individual marginalization and the origins of different club networks. In our model, individuals seek to become members of clubs while clubs wish to have members. Club value is increasing in its size and in the strength of ties with other clubs. We show that a stable membership profile exhibits marginalization of individuals and that this is generally not welfare maximizing. Our second result shows that if returns from strength of ties are convex (concave) then stable memberships support fragmented networks with strong ties (small worlds held together by weak ties). We illustrate the value of these theoretical results through case studies of inter-locking directorates and boards of editors of journals.


The early Neoproterozoic Era witnessed the initial ecological rise of eukaryotes at ca. 800 Ma. To assess whether nitrate availability played an important role in this evolutionary event, we measured nitrogen isotope compositions (δ15N) of marine carbonates from the early Tonian (ca. 1000 Ma to ca. 800 Ma) Huaibei Group in North China. The data reported here fill a critical gap in the δ15N record and indicate nitrate limitation in early Neoproterozoic oceans. A compilation of Proterozoic sedimentary δ15N data reveals a stepwise increase in δ15N values at ~800 Ma. Box model simulations indicate that this stepwise increase likely represents a ~50% increase in marine nitrate availability. Limited nitrate availability in early Neoproterozoic oceans may have delayed the ecological rise of eukaryotes until ~800 Ma when increased nitrate supply, together with other environmental and ecological factors, may have contributed to the transition from prokaryote-dominant to eukaryote-dominant marine ecosystems.


Gas-fired boiler has received wide attention with the advantages of simple structure and low pollutant emission. In this study, the combustion characteristics and heat flux distribution of gas-fired boiler were investigated numerically under four different loads (30%, 50%, 75%, 100% load). The heat flux distributions of thermal calculation and numerical simulation results have significant difference due to different calculating method. Results show that the temperature in the furnace increases as the increment of boiler loads. The temperature of furnace outlet can reach 1573 K at 100% load. With the increasing of boiler load, the heat flux on each wall increases. The heat flux on rear wall is the highest, whereas the heat flux on front wall is the lowest. The numerical results in this study could provide a reference for optimization of combustion characteristics and design of gas-fired boiler.


Abstract Numerical integrations using a potential enstrophy conserving scheme are presented for the flow within a mixed layer over hilly terrain using the hydrostatic shallow-water equations with a quadratic drag law. The mesoscale area treated is 150 km on a side; cyclic lateral boundary conditions are used. It is found that for the idealized conditions treated (no surface heating, no entrainment and no pressure adjustments aloft), the topography quickly induces a steady state flow pattern by means of surface friction. Unsteadiness does not occur unless a surface-friction Reynolds number, R = h/(CDL), exceeds ∼100, where hh is the mean mixed-layer thickness, CD is the surface drag coefficient and L is a representative horizontal terrain length scale. Effects of varying the Rossby number, Froude number and terrain-height parameter are examined.


AbstractThe association between dialysis vascular access dysfunction and the risk of developing major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in hemodialysis patients is unclear and has not yet been investigated. We analyzed data from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan to quantify this association. Adopting a case–control design nested within a cohort of patients who received hemodialysis from 2001 to 2010, we identified 9711 incident cases of MACE during the stage of stable maintenance dialysis and 19,422 randomly selected controls matched to cases on age, gender, and duration of dialysis. Events of vascular access dysfunction in the 6-month period before the date of MACE onset (ie, index date) for cases and before index dates for controls were evaluated retrospectively. The presence of vascular access dysfunction was associated with a 1.385-fold higher odds of developing MACE as estimated from the logistic regression analysis. This represents a significantly increased adjusted odds ratio (OR) at 1.268 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.186–1.355) after adjustment for comorbidities and calendar years of initiating dialysis. We also noted a significant exposure–response trend (P < 0.001) between the frequency of vascular access dysfunction and MACE, with the greatest risk (adjusted OR = 1.840, 95% CI = 1.549–2.186) noted in patients with ≥3 vascular access events. We concluded that dialysis vascular access dysfunction was significantly associated with an increased risk of MACE. Hence, vascular access failure can be an early sign for MACE in patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis. Active monitoring and treatment of cardiovascular risk factors and related diseases, not merely managing vascular access dysfunction, would be required to reduce the risk of MACE.


Learning is an unending, abstract and invisible process that permeates everyone's life, whether young or old, rich or poor, educated or illiterate. Learning is also an embodiment of education which transcends the four-walls of the classroom. Therefore, education is an added knowledge to one's existing knowledge which is expected to lead to behavioral modification on the part of the educatee, whose efficiency and performance in his/her daily activities should consequently improve positively. In the same vein, mentoring has a multi-faceted dimension, not limited only to the education industry but also includes all other aspects of human development process. Therefore, this paper analyses the varying dimensions of mentoring phenomenon which may be characterized by flexibility of learning process among different groups of people in any given society. The totality of such a learning encounter through mentoring process is aimed at achieving an all-round development of an individual, whether such is from cognitive, psychomotor or affective domain!


We derive a new cost of information in rational inattention problems, the neighborhood-based cost functions, starting from the observation that many settings involve exogenous states with a topological structure. These cost functions are uniformly posterior separable and capture notions of perceptual distance. This second property ensures that neighborhood-based costs, unlike mutual information, make accurate predictions about behavior in perceptual experiments. We compare the implications of our neighborhood-based cost functions with those of the mutual information in a series of applications: perceptual judgments, the general environment of binary choice, regime-change games, and linear-quadratic-Gaussian settings. (JEL C70, D11, D82, D83, D91)


Substantial evidence suggests that loss of cellular p21WAF1/CIP1 results in increased apoptotic killing by ionizing radiation. We hypothesized that a p21 antisense (AS) oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) could be used to sensitize cancer cells to radiotherapy. In vitro treatment of colon cancer cells (HCT116/p21+/+) with p21 AS ODN (200 nM) led to inhibition of radiation-induced p21 expression (>95% inhibition, 0-30 Gy), resulting in a loss of G1 arrest and an enhancement of apoptosis to comparable levels and with similar kinetics to HCT116/p21-/- cells (approximately 60% apoptotic cells at 96 h after 10 Gy). In vivo, p21 AS ODN in combination with radiation (i.p. ODN for 6 days at 20 mg/kg/day and 15 Gy) increased apoptosis in s.c. p21+/+ tumors in nude mice to levels similar to those of p21-/- tumors (2-fold at 24 h postirradiation) and improved radiocurability of p21+/+ tumors to levels comparable to those of p21-/- tumors (p21+/+, two of eight cures versus p21-/-, two of nine cures). Our findings suggest that p21 AS treatment may be a rational approach to improve conventional radiotherapy outcomes.


More than three decades ago, bright light was found to be able to suppress melatonin production in humans, a finding which quickly led to identification of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and its treatment with light. However, current thinking supports a phase shift hypothesis (PSH), according to which SAD is a disorder primarily of phasedelayed circadian misalignment {best assessed by the time interval [or phase angle difference (PAD)]} between the dim light melatonin onset (DLMO) and the midpoint of the sleep bout. It has been heuristically useful to use PAD 6 (a time interval of six hours) as the "sweet spot" for SAD: most patients with SAD have phase-delayed circadian misalignment (that is, have PADs ≤ 6), which explains why bright light exposure scheduled at waketime is the optimal treatment for most patients with SAD. Low-dose melatonin taken in the afternoon/evening also provides a corrective phase advance and is therefore an alternative or "add-on" treatment for these patients. The other SAD patients appear to be phase advanced (with PADs > 6) and respond to evening light and morning melatonin. Other hypotheses have not stood the test of time, including the two-oscillator dawn/dusk model of the endogenous circadian pacemaker which has been at least heuristically useful in rodents. However, recent research on multiple oscillators in the SCN and brain, as well as in other tissues and organs, may yet yield a more refined understanding of circadian misalignment. The salivary home DLMO may soon be the first laboratory test for a psychiatric disorder.


Partitional clustering of categorical data is normally performed by using K-modes clustering algorithm, which works well for large datasets. Even though the design and implementation of K-modes algorithm is simple and efficient, it has the pitfall of randomly choosing the initial cluster centers for invoking every new execution that may lead to non-repeatable clustering results. This paper addresses the randomized center initialization problem of K-modes algorithm by proposing a cluster center initialization algorithm. The proposed algorithm performs multiple clustering of the data based on attribute values in different attributes and yields deterministic modes that are to be used as initial cluster centers. In the paper, we propose a new method for selecting the most relevant attributes, namely Prominent attributes, compare it with another existing method to find Significant attributes for unsupervised learning, and perform multiple clustering of data to find initial cluster centers. The proposed algorithm ensures fixed initial cluster centers and thus repeatable clustering results. The worst-case time complexity of the proposed algorithm is log-linear to the number of data objects. We evaluate the proposed algorithm on several categorical datasets and compared it against random initialization and two other initialization methods, and show that the proposed method performs better in terms of accuracy and time complexity. The initial cluster centers computed by the proposed approach are close to the actual cluster centers of the different data we tested, which leads to faster convergence of K-modes clustering algorithm in conjunction to better clustering results


Online Social networking websites are very popular and have become a part of life. These sites have made significant impact in the individual's life. When analyzing the users' scope of social networking, it can be concluded that the modern social communities influence in individual's private life, whereas the traditional networking or social communities is more interrelated to business circle. This change has undoubtedly offered many firms an opportunity to target this new medium for marketing. In Pakistan, marketing on social networks is not taken seriously. There are some companies who have shown interest and have created their presence yet they are not focusing seriously. If this medium is explored intelligently then the social network medium has a potential to provide many new ways to market the audience with the help of registered users indirectly, without knowing them. Social Network (Facebook) has provided many tools for marketing purpose like groups, events, social ads. These all are widely used and entertaining the enterprise organizations by all means; however these all have some limitations. Tagged based marketing on the Facebook is a new concept inspired from the tag facility provided by Facebook. If this strategy is implemented then this would be helpful for organization in terms of targeting audience, developing trust of the product among consumer, increase clientele etc. This paper presents a survey based research from users and organizations for finding their views on the tagged based marketing on the social networking website (Facebook). The survey consists of two questionnaires each for user and organization. this survey helps in understanding the reason why the tagged based marketing is not successfully implanted in Pakistan, what are the barriers and what steps could be taken to make it effective for organizations.


This paper presents a compensation structure to reduce the output common mode current of a rail-to-rail constant g m transconductance stage. The transconductance stage is a differential structure with the input transistors biased in weak inversion. This results in low power consumption and a simple relation between gm  and tail currents. The constant gm is achieved by doubling the tail current in the active differential couple when the other one goes to cut off. Together with constant bias current in the output stage this can result in common mode bias current flowing from the output depending on the common mode input voltage. The proposed solution eliminates this problem by variation of the bias current in the output stage in relation to the tail currents in the differential couples. The transconductance stage was manufactured in a 0.35 mum CMOS process. Measurement results are presented together with simulation data. The compensation structure cancels the common mode output currents for common mode input signals up to a frequency of 7 MHz.


The central amygdala (CeA) is involved in the processing of anxiety and stress and plays a role in ethanol consumption. Chronic ethanol recruits stress systems in the CeA, leading to aversive withdrawal symptoms. Although primarily GABAergic, CeA contains glutamatergic afferents, and we have reported inhibitory effects of ethanol on locally evoked glutamatergic responses in CeA of Wistar and Marchigian Sardinian alcohol‐preferring (msP) rats. Notably, msP rats display enhanced anxiety, stress and alcohol drinking, simulating the alcohol‐dependent phenotype. Endocannabinoids are also involved in regulation of stress, and we previously demonstrated that cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1) activation decreases CeA GABAergic signaling and blocks ethanol enhancement of GABAergic signaling. Here, we sought to investigate the effects of CB1 activation (WIN 55,212–2; Win) and antagonism (AM251) with and without acute ethanol on glutamatergic synapses in CeA of female and male Wistar and msP rats. Using intracellular sharp pipette electrophysiology, we examined the effects of CB1 compounds on locally evoked excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) in CeA and compared effects between strains, gender and estrous cycle. Acute ethanol decreased EPSP amplitudes in Wistars, and in male but not female msPs. Win decreased EPSP amplitudes in msPs, and in male but not female Wistars. Combined application of Win and ethanol resulted in strain‐specific effects in female rats. We found no tonic CB1 signaling at glutamatergic synapses in CeA of any groups, and no interaction with ethanol. Collectively, these observations demonstrate sex–strain‐specific differences in ethanol and endocannabinoid effects on CeA glutamatergic signaling.


Using a case study (Zhangjiajie), this article discusses the status accorded to outdoor theatrical shows in the remarkable mountainous landscapes of China. This type of performance has become very widespread in the country since 2004. In the form of a sound-and-light musical drama, it adopts a mythified and very formalized approach that uses and embraces the marvellous landscape and attempts to link spectacular technical effects to a stereotypical artistic approach. As an object of tourist consumption, it leads us to question the notion of 'culture' to which it attaches itself, emphasizing the disconnect it presents in terms of Western norms. A kitsch 'mass' show, it constitutes both a commercial reality of a new China and the postmodern modality of a cultural approach inherited from an official socialist discourse that is today legitimizing its actions by attaching itself to tradition.


The domain of the theory of functional sentence perspective
(FSP) has been explored mostly on the sentential level.
Recently, however, attention has been paid also to the
functional picture of higher hierarchical levels of text; the
research has shown that an FSP analysis of a distributional
macrofield (a paragraph, a chapter) is a promising step taken
in the study of FSP and that it can reveal significant
characteristic features of a whole text. The article examines
the distributional macrofield from the point of view of FSP,
focusing on the horizontal and vertical relations operating
within the text. The paper also discusses these
horizontal-vertical relations within FSP analysis with regards
to the dichotomy concepts offered by Ferdinand de Saussure.


Copolymerization has been widely used to tune the thermoresponsive behavior of water-soluble polymers. However, the observation of both upper and lower critical solution temperature (UCST and LCST) from the same type of copolymer comprising only one monomer whose homopolymer is thermosensitive and the other monomer whose homopolymer is nonthermosensitive has not been reported. In this work, well-defined thermoresponsive copolymers with tunable compositions have been synthesized by copolymerization of N-acryloylglycinamide (NAGA) and diacetone acrylamide (DAAM) via reversible addition−fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. The thermal transitions of these copolymers are investigated using a combination of turbidimetry, dynamic light scattering (DLS), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (H NMR), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The solubility of these copolymers shows a distinct dependence on the composition. While copolymers with up to 30 mol % NAGA are essentially insoluble, copolymers with 35−55 mol % NAGA or 90−100 mol % NAGA have either LCSTor UCST-type transitions respectively, and soluble copolymers are obtained with 60−85 mol % NAGA. The LCSTand UCST-type transitions are tunable with respect to composition, degree of polymerization, polymer concentration, isotope effect and the presence of electrolyte. Insights from variable-temperature H NMR and FTIR spectroscopies reveal the key role of hydrogen-bonding between the NAGA and DAAM units in determining the thermal transitions.


In this paper, we study the control problem and note that it is multi-objective by nature, and thus we develop an optimal multi-objective approach. Our approach includes formalizing components and identifying dimensions, resulting in few cases for concrete problem formulation. For a selected case, namely the finite control case, a single-objective from the literature and our multi-objective solutions are presented. It is demonstrated that the multi-objective solution avoids drawbacks of the single-objective solution, particularly the need for defining single objective out of many


To develop biocompatible polymer modification method on a quantum dot (QD) surface, we have studied poly(2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine) (poly(MPC)) grafting on trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO)-coated QD (CdSe/ZnS) surface using new strategy with a double functional reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) agent. Sodium 2-dodecylsulfanylthiocarbonylsulfanyl-2-methyl propionate (DMP-Na) was focused and prepared as the double functional RAFT agent. As the first function, the DMP-Na possessed surface activity that forms micelle in aqueous solution and solubilize the TOPO-coated QD into the solution. The DMP-Na indicated critical micelle concentration (CMC) from surface tension measurement in an aqueous medium. Over CMC, the QD was able to be solubilized into DMP-Na micelle and showed multicolor fluorescence spectra with narrow full-width at half maximum (FWHM) corresponding to diameter of the QD. Additionally, as the second function, the DMP-Na possessed chain transfer agent ability that synthesizes a poly(MPC)-grafted QD in an aqueous medium. In this strategy, fluorescence properties with narrow FWHM and peak top did not change before and after solubilization into the DMP-Na micelle aqueous solution and even after polymerization of the MPC initiated from the DMP-Na. The poly(MPC)-modified QD showed good biocompatibility based on the poly(MPC) properties, and was able to suppress uptake by HeLa cells despite diameter of the poly(MPC)-modified QD was approximately 12 nm.


The aim of this study is to explore both the bank-specific and macroeconomic drivers of net interest margins using panel data techniques for a sample of 12 deposit banks publicly traded on the Borsa Istanbul over the post-crisis period 2010-2015. Our panel data results suggest that while bank size and managerial efficiency affect net interest margins negatively and significantly, operating cost, credit risk, and implicit interest payments influence the NIMs positively and significantly in the postcrisis era. The results also imply that macroeconomic indicators such as economic growth and inflation do not have any significant effects on the NIMs.


Introduction: Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) and Mycoplasma genitalium (MG) represent the most common agents of bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs), worldwide. In women, uro-genital infections caused by these microorganisms are often asymptomatic and, left untreated, can lead to several sequelae. Nucleic acid amplification techniques (NAATs) have become the reference methods for the diagnosis, thanks to the suitability for different specimens and the outstanding sensitivity and specificity. The aim of this study was to assess the performance of Aptima Assays for CT, NG and MG detection in a group of selected women, by a head-to-head comparison with other NAATs. Moreover, an evaluation about the suitability for the Aptima assays with one of the most used swab collection device (E-Swab; Copan) was carried out. Methods Routinely, all the women attending the STI Outpatients Clinic of Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Hospital of Bologna (Italy) complaining of genital STI-related symptoms or reporting unsafe intercourse, are managed as follows. After a clinical visit, a sample of first-void urines and a vaginal swab collected in E-swab, are obtained for CT, NG and MG detection. A duplex real-time PCR (Versant CT/GC DNA 1.0 assay; Siemens) is used for CT and NG detection, while, MG presence is investigated by a home-made PCR, starting from the remaining eluate of Versant PCR plate. From January 2016, a total of 100 patients were selected and their samples were also tested with Aptima assays. Previously frozen samples were thawed and transferred to the suitable collection devices for Aptima assays: in particular, 2 ml of urines and 100 µl of vaginal E-swab were used. All the specimens were processed by Aptima Combo2® for CT and NG detection and by the Aptima® Mycoplasma genitalium assay for MG infection diagnosis. These assays were run on Panther system (Hologic). A comparison between the different molecular methods, stratified by type of sample and microorganism, was conducted. Results In the group of 100 women selected, 25 patients were positive for CT, 4 for NG and 6 for MG. One case of CT-NG and two cases of CT-MG co-infections were found. Interestingly, more than 50% of CT-positive women were completely asymptomatic. By the routine tests, all positive cases were simultaneously found both on the urine sample and on the vaginal swab, except for 3 CT, 1 NG and 1 MG infections, detected only on the vaginal swab. A complete concordance with Aptima assays, both for the type of sample and microorganism was found, with only one discordant result (a CT case detected by Versant on urines and vaginal swab, found by Aptima only on urines). Any interference due to the different liquid components of E-Swab was excluded. Conclusion Given the outstanding performance, Aptima assays can represent an excellent choice for CT, NG and MG molecular detection. Moreover, it is noteworthy that Aptima assays allow testing of specimens collected by E-Swab, enabling the possibility to use the same sample for both NG molecular detection and culture.


The propagation of scattering Lamb wave in plate was simulated using transient dynamic analysis in ANSYS. In order to extract the characteristic information of received signal for damage identification, the short time Fourier transform based on time-frequency analysis was utilized, and then the energy distribution and envelop of received signal were obtained. Based on the displacement contour of simulation and energy distribution, the propagation of scattering wave in plate with a through hole was examined. Also, a mathematic relationship between damage location and scattering signal was developed, with the help of wave propagation path through actuator, damage and sensor. A nonlinear optimization method was applied on the mathematic relationship to obtain the damage location. The damage identification method using scattering Lamb wave was therefore established.


In rodents, a pup's experiences in utero and during postnatal development shape its sexual behavior as an adult and how it is perceived by potential mates. We show that the male rat's sexuality is primarily influenced by the postnatal sex ratio of its litter, but not by the litter's prenatal intrauterine sex ratio or the behavior of its mother. Pups from litters with differing prenatal sex ratios were divided into litters with differing postnatal sex ratios. We found that males raised in a female-biased litter exhibited less mounting than males raised in either a male-biased litter or one with an equal sex ratio, and were less attractive to sexually receptive females, eliciting fewer soliciting behaviors, such as hop-darts, and fewer lordosis behaviors. However, the number of intromissions and ejaculations did not differ across groups, which suggests that males from female-biased litters mate as efficiently as males raised in other sex ratios, but do not require as many mounts to do so. The reported differences in sexual behavior did not vary with the quality of maternal behavior or with sexual experience in adulthood.


Evaluating the appearance of retroreflectors involves the application of the basic principles of appearance measurement. It is typical of many appearance measurement problems in that it involves a source (or sources) of illumination, a viewer, and an object or surface of concern. The objective is a numerical description of the appearance properties of the material. For such descriptions, the measurement geometry must be established, the spectral conditions considered, and meaningful appearance related quantities agreed upon. In the measurement technique described here, computers are used to control the instrumentation for geometric and spectral analysis while simultaneously calculating appearance related quantities, along an appropriate application parameter. A shoulder mounted retroreflective road sign is the example considered, and the application parameter is the distance from vehicle to sign. Local viewing and illuminating geometry are translated into a laboratory measurement coordinate system. These transformations are made at distances corresponding to the incremental motion of a vehicle along the roadway. From these application-oriented measurements, intrinsic photometric results are calculated and displayed in terms of quantities such as coefficient of retroreflection. Once the material characteristics are measured, along the application parameter, additional analysis using the actual illuminating source can be completed. In the case of the retroreflector, the luminance in the direction of the viewer is an important result. Evaluation based on practical viewing conditions provides a useful insight into appearance without the necessity of completely describing the spectraogoniophotometric properties of the retroreflector.


Objectives The American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP) Colposcopy Standards recommendations address the role of and approach to colposcopy and biopsy for cervical cancer prevention in the United States. The recommendations were developed by an expert working group appointed by ASCCP's Board of Directors. The ASCCP Quality Improvement Working Group developed evidence-based guidelines to promote best practices and reduce errors in colposcopy and recommended indicators to measure colposcopy quality. Materials and Methods The working group performed a systematic review of existing major society and national guidelines and quality indicators. An initial list of potential quality indicators was developed and refined through successive iterative discussions, and draft quality indicators were proposed. The draft recommendations were then reviewed and commented on by the entire Colposcopy Standards Committee, posted online for public comment, and presented at the International Federation for Cervical Pathology and Colposcopy 2017 World Congress for further comment. All comments were considered, additional adjustments made, and the final recommendations approved by the entire Task Force. Results Eleven quality indicators were selected spanning documentation, biopsy protocols, and time intervals between index screening tests and completion of diagnostic evaluation. Conclusions The proposed quality indicators are intended to serve as a starting point for quality improvement in colposcopy at a time when colposcopy volume is decreasing and individual procedures are becoming technically more difficult to perform.


Small field of view (SFOV) gamma detection and imaging technologies for monitoring in vivo tracer uptake are rapidly expanding and being introduced for bed-side imaging and image guided surgical procedures. The Hybrid Gamma Camera (HGC) has been developed, at the University of Leicester, to enhance the localisation of targeted radiopharmaceuticals during surgical procedures, for example in sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsies, and for bed-side imaging in small organ gamma imaging procedures such as lacrimal scintigraphy and thyroid scintigraphy. In this thesis, prototype medical phantoms including anthropomorphic threedimensional printed phantoms have been designed, constructed, and evaluated using representative modelled medical scenarios to study the capability of the HGC to detect SLNs and image small organs. Furthermore, the results of the first clinical feasibility study of the HGC has been discussed. The HGC was used to perform non-invasive hybrid gamma-optical imaging procedures on patients attending their routine scint32igraphic imaging appointments in a nuclear medicine clinic. Various quantitative and qualitative assessments have been conducted on different phantom configurations including simulating targeted tissues at several depths and using different radioactivity concentrations. Two generations of the HGC have been utilised, having two different thicknesses of columnar CsI(Tl) scintillator, and two pinhole collimator diameters (0.5 mm and 1.0 mm). Additionally, the behaviour of the HGC at a range of imaging distances and acquisition times has been examined. All of these factors were considered to judge the detection limitations of the HGC. The results demonstrate that the HGC was ideally suited for small organ imaging. The HGC capability to detect low activity uptake in small SLNs indicates its usefulness as an intraoperative imaging system during surgical SLN procedures. The ability of the HGC to utilise both pinhole collimators enhances its practicality and improves its ability to meet the needs of SFOV gamma imaging.


Discussed here is research on a spring activated fuel pump for solid or airless injection with small, high speed internal combustion engines. The pump characteristics under investigation were the interval of fuel injection in terms of degrees of crank travel and in absolute time, the lag between the time the injection pump plunger begins its stroke and the appearance of the jet at the orifice, and the manner in which the fuel spray builds up to a maximum when the fuel valve is opened, and then diminishes.


We have treated almost 700 proximal humeral fractures, and selected from them a series of 16 cases which required operative intervention in the form of semiclosed reduction and internal fixation with the Rush pin because of the marked amount of displacement and risk on nonunion. We favor the 3/16 inch Rush pin for this operation. Fractures of the surgical neck comprise the vast majority of cases operated upon in this series. They are the easiest to reduce and fix by the Rush pin technique. Certain comminuted severely displaced fractures involving the anatomic neck of the humerus and/or greater and lesser tuberosities also lend themselves to this operation with comparable results to other methods of treatment. There have been no postoperative motalities and minimal morbidity. The operation can be performed rapidly and requires only a short period of immobilization and hospitalization.